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“I’m from the ‘Just Say No era.’ This is not something I saw myself as, but you’ll do anything for your child,” Stevens said.

The Greenville mother has been advocating for the medical use of the drug for the past year. Her 7-year-old daughter Halle has mitochondrial disease which causes epileptic seizures, and Stevens wants medical marijuana to be accessible to patients across the state.

In association with Compassionate South Carolina, an advocacy group, Stevens will host an educational advocacy seminar Thursday at the Hughes Main Library from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Onarae Rice, associate professor of Neuroscience at Furman University and legislative liaison for the group, David Newsome, are also scheduled to speak.

The group, made up of a number of medical patients and parents, aims to pass a bill in the state that will provide patients with access to marijuana. Compassionate South Carolina believes doctors should decide on medical marijuana use, not law enforcement and legislators.

But some members of law enforcement disagree. The bill is very complicated in its current structure, Greenville Police Chief Ken Miller said. He said the best course of action would be for the FDA to approve marijuana for medical use instead of states taking up the matter.

"The legislation is very problematic. It does nothing to effectively regulate the doctors who might prescribe or recommend, it does nothing to limit the abuses of the marijuana, the transfer of medical marijuana. It does nothing to restrict the potency amounts and it does nothing to effectively address the black market issues that will arise from the passage of this legislation as it currently stands," Miller said.

The Compassionate Care Act was introduced by Sen. Tom Davis and Rep. Peter McCoy in January. Bill S 221/H3521, would allow patients with debilitating medical conditions to obtain identification cards that give them to access medical cannabis from a state regulated dispensary.

“It’s all about education. We do not want recreational usage. … Our group is specifically focused on cannabis as a medicine. We’re just trying to educate people that in the states that where this legislation is passed, there’s not widespread recreational uses," Stevens said.

Nationally, 28 states and Washington D.C. have passed medical bills, with Arkansas, Florida, North Dakota, Ohio and Pennsylvania, the most recent in 2016, according to ProCon.org.

CompassionateSC will host an educational and advocacy seminar on Thursday, March, 23 at 6:30 p.m. at the Hughes main Library.(Photo: Cathy Stevens)

While he understands the push-back to medical marijuana use, Rice said marijuana treats a wider range of diseases and is less addictive than alternative drugs.

“Marijuana is not nearly as addictive as opioids and other drugs, and studies have shown this. It has a wider impact on other conditions than opioids have. For instance, marijuana is used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, epilepsy, Crohn's disease,” Rice said.